For Con Law I would recommend the High Court Case Summaries (keyed to your text). I bought it midway through the semester and kicked myself for not doing it earlier. Con Law is VERY case based, and understanding the reasoning really matters.

Read the cases and figure them out for yourself - use supplements to help you understand. In some classes, you will need to have a good understanding of the reasoning used to reach the decision, and also the dissent reasoning. This will be especially true in Con Law. Don't get me wrong - I think supplements and commercial outlines are great, but they are just that - a supplement. I used them to make sure I was "getting" it and to help decipher some of the gobbledy-gook in the actaul casesw that makes 1L so confusing at times. I think they are especially helpful for civil procedure at this point. The above posters are right on in saying that you need to learn how to read the cases and decipher them yourself. That is what you will be doing in real life, probably next summer.

wardwilliams

Definitely read the cases. Figure out what the court held and why they held it--don't figure this out by looking at lexis or gilberts. Figure it out yourself and you will be good for the exam. I think you would be much better off focusing solely on the cases, putting in more time with them, and cutting out all the lexis briefs, gilberts outlines, hornbooks, etc. That said, get the E&E for Torts and CivPro, esp. Torts--particularly good Negligence sections

Everyone keeps making suggestions for certain courses needing supplements, but I think it depends on your professor.

My Torts professor is AMAZING - I have perfect notes for that class and I understand everything really well, so I don't feel that a supplement is necessary, however, if someone had a bad professor (or one who didn't teach as coherently), then perhaps a supplement would help.

I hear/find the only exception is Civil Procedure, since some of the aspects can get hairy (I got Glannon's for that course).

And, for me, our Con Law prof rambles and rants around the rose-bush all during class, so I got a supplement for that ... although apparently the "Lockwood-isms" (random trivia multiple choice questions that he puts on his exams - like, what did the founding fathers want to originally pay government officials? Wheat.) you just need to get a complete list from a 2-L or 3-L and bring it to the exam so you get those questions correct. hah.

My torts teacher is very clear, and there's a review session with some TA's to hit the important points of the week on another day, so I may not do much EE for that, Civ Pro, the teacher is pretty clear, but doesn't hit a lot of material, so I may do some EE, I also was given some advice from a 2L on how he is very big on personal jurisdiction on the exam. Contracts, the teacher just presents off of some slides and expects you to immediately connect what he is going to say with anything he or the book has briefly mentioned, even if he has only mentioned the subject with one word on a slide, so I may be doing EE's for that class...a lot.

You should cover all the chapters that correspond to the topics on your syllabus. I usually did a couple chapters a week based on what was covered in class. If your prof really is good, much will be review. But you don't get the questions with answers in class. So if you actually write out real answers to the questions in the E&E as you do the chapters, you'll be learning how to analyze fact patterns and apply the relevant law to them in baby steps, which is the entire point of the whole E&E series. Then when you work old exams about a month in or so, things won't seem so difficult.

Most 1Ls overestimate their understanding of black letter law topics, or what is going on in general. That's why so many only consult books such as the E&E when they "need to". That's also one reason why so few 1Ls even have a shot at getting high grades.

I didnt use E&E at all my first year except the few times it was assigned as part of the class. Supplements are a waste of time in my opinion. People focus too much on supplements and study aids when all you have to do is read, brief, and outline to do well.

"so few 1Ls even have a shot at getting high grades" that is because there is a curve and not because they chose not to waste money on supplements.